The Hindu Business Line : Satyam, Infosys in pursuit of large railway deals

Hyderabad, Feb. 26 Welcoming the Railway Budget presented today, IT services provider Satyam Computer said that it was in pursuit of at least four Rs 1,000 crore to Rs,2,000 crore technology outsourcing deals in the Indian Railways.

Mr Ranjan Tayal, India-Head, Satyam Computer, said the company was in talks with the Indian Railways for such large IT outsourcing deals. They include asset management services, enterprise resource planning (ERP), RFID (radio frequency identification) and commercial portals.

In a statement, he said the Railway Ministry was looking at information technology as a strategic tool where IT partners need to engage not just at the service but at the solution level. The scope of work now goes beyond just implementing IT frameworks. It involves also post-deployment services such as enterprise-wide roll-out and maintenance through call centres for internal and external touch points.

Some of these deals are to be awarded to companies that participated in the request for proposal (RFP), in the first half of the fiscal year which starts April 1.

Dow Jones reports: Infosys Technologies Ltd said it plans to pursue deals arising from Railways’ decision to modernise its information technology infrastructure.

“The gamut of opportunities within IT could cover digitisation, freight management, ticket processing over the mobile/alternative delivery systems, optimising and upgrading IT-infrastructure. This is a great opportunity for Indian IT players such as Infosys,” the Chief Financial Officer, Mr V. Balakrishnan, said in a statement.

The company’s India business unit “will be actively participating in some of these opportunities,” he added.